News
tralac’s Daily News selection
The selection: Wednesday, 27 January 2016
Today, in Addis: press briefings by Dr Anthony Mothae Maruping (Commissioner for Economic Affairs) and Mrs Fatima Haram Acyl (Commissioner for Trade and Industry)
Tomorrow, in Addis: the African Investor Presidential-CEO Investment Summit
The Summit will also convene a dialogue between African Heads of State participating in the Presidential Infrastructure Champions Initiative and the Leadership Council of the African Union’s newly-established Continental Business Network, that will focus on how to develop and finance critical regional infrastructure projects in Africa. [Namibian president to address African investors (New Era)]
On Friday, in Gaborone: 'Small middle-income countries - raising the bar' (Gaborone, 29 January)
In recent years, small middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa have enjoyed stronger growth and economic development than most other countries in the region. More recently, however, a number of external developments have led to headwinds and a slowdown in economic activity. As a result, SMICs in the region need to adjust their policies to preserve stability and restore growth, while at the same time decide on the structural reforms that would set the basis for long-term growth and transition to high-income status. This high-level conference aims to take stock of recent developments and provide a forum to policy makers to exchange views on the above challenges and the policies needed to confront them.
Participation of small economies in global value chains: evidence and policy issues (Commonwealth)
This issue of Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics focuses on the integration of small economies in value chains in the agrifood, seafood, and textiles and apparel sectors in the case of goods, and in tourism as well as IT and business process outsourcing in the case of services. The paper also highlights small economies' trade policy options related to foreign direct investment (FDI), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), regional integration, transport infrastructure, logistics and trade facilitation. [The authors: Rainer Lanz, Hans-Peter Werner]
Second US-Africa Business Forum: update (US Dept of Commerce)
During the week of 19 September, on the occasion of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the US Department of Commerce will co-host the second US-Africa Business Forum, a day focused on increased trade and investment between the US and African nations. The US-Africa Business Forum will build on the progress of the inaugural Forum, held during the 2014 US-Africa Leaders Summit with the participation of nearly 50 heads of state or government and more than 150 global CEOs – to further develop trade and business opportunities between the United States and Africa.
Note: The Forum will focus on US private sector engagement in Africa in sectors like finance and capital investment, infrastructure, power and energy, agriculture, consumer goods, health care, and information communication technology.
Updates on the DBIA trip to Nigeria: Speech by US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (US Dept of Commerce), US encourages businesses to explore Africa's opportunities (AP)
ECOWAS: National biometric ID cards meeting (IOM)
The two-day meeting, which began yesterday, is in the context of high mobility from and within West Africa, where intra-regional and irregular migration feature prominently in the political agendas of most West African governments. Facilitating South-South migration, which is seven times greater than migration flows from West African countries to other parts of the world, and tackling irregular migration to Europe, is therefore a common twofold challenge in the region. While intra-regional migration has been widely recognized as key to the region’s economic growth and stability, ECOWAS has identified the need for the rapid development of a national biometric identity card and FMM West Africa seeks to support its effective implementation, to be used as travel document in place of the travel certificate in ECOWAS Member States.
Note: The meeting will be followed by a two-day visit to Agadez, a primary transit point for irregular migrants crossing from West Africa to Europe, where the Task Force will be piloted, to meet with local authorities and visit the IOM Transit Centre. The Task Force will also be implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.
Horn of Africa: Irregular migration increases in 2015 (IOM)
In 2015 five countries in the Horn of Africa – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan – experienced a marked increase in irregular migration by land and sea from a year earlier. The increase is drawn from five indicators: (1) Arrivals in Yemen from the Horn of Africa. (2) Arrivals in the Horn of Africa from Yemen. (3) Arrivals in Europe. (4) Migrant deaths. (5) Nationalities on the move. [Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat www]
Weaker rand affecting Zim, South Africa trade (NewsDay)
UN director of macro-economic policy Adam Elhiraika told NewsDay on the sidelines of the launch of the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects for 2016 report yesterday that Zimbabwe has to strike an agreement or arrangement to make sure that fluctuations in the rand will not translate to low exports. “When it comes to imports and trade with South Africa the fluctuations we have seen in the value of the rand and the huge depreciation over the last few years really presents a challenge to Zimbabwe in terms of trade with South Africa,” Ehiraika said. “Obviously, South African exports to Zimbabwe will be cheaper while Zimbabwe exports to South Africa will be more expensive for South Africans to buy. In the short run, Zimbabwe has to strike an agreement or arrangement to make sure that fluctuations in the rand are not translated to lower demand for Zimbabwean exports.”
Angola/Namibia: Kwanza deal had loopholes (The Namibian)
Business people in Angola and Namibia took advantage of loopholes in the Namibia dollar/Angola kwanza currency conversion agreement last year and exchanged large amounts of kwanza they were holding, which left the Bank of Namibia 'stuck' with kwanza worth about US$380 million. “We wanted to facility trade between the two countries. The cost of exchanging currencies is one of the problems that we wanted to take away,” he said. Oil prices declined at the time when the deal was introduced leading to a shortage of foreign exchange in Angola. “We did not foresee that oil prices would collapse,” he said. “They could not get US dollars before, and we opened the floodgates,” he said of the flood to offload kwanza by business people.
Egypt and the Africa 2016 Investment Forum (Daily News)
Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman said, during a COMESA preparatory press conference on Tuesday, that the Egyptian private sector aims to increase its direct investments in the African market to over $7.9bn in the upcoming years. He pointed out that 21 African investment commissions will propose investment opportunities during the COMESA meeting in February. These projects will come in various sectors, including energy, infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology, agriculture, medicine, and health. The COMESA conference aims to assemble African private investors to discuss the means for strengthening the trade exchange, the provision of information, and investment balance. [Additional details on the Forum]
Toward the establishment of a Pan African Agribusiness Holding Company (African Brains)
The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, and the Chairperson of SOBEK Trade and Investment (Egypt), Mrs. Manal Abdel Moneim, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in support of an initiative to launch a Pan African Agribusiness Holding Company. The MoU signed on Tuesday 19 January at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, aims at developing women’s agribusinesses by mobilizing investments and providing capacity to such businesses in different parts of the continent.
Egypt’s direct investments in Africa hit $7.9bn: minister (Amwal)
South Africa: Policy makers’ focus on corporates may be way off (Business Day)
The numbers presented last week were created from records of more than 600,000 firms (although only about 400,000 of these are non-dormant) over the six years to 2014 and academic and Treasury economists have started using them to look at a range of questions, from how small businesses have responded to tax incentives, to what drives firms to invest, to whether those who import more also export more — and whether small firms are more productive than large ones (they aren’t). It’s all quite preliminary, but the trends are intriguing.
SA urged to introduce controls on capital flows (IOL)
The United Nations has urged South Africa to introduce controls on short-term capital movements in and out of the country, to prevent further large depreciations of the rand. Adam Elhiraika, director of macroeconomic policy at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said on Tuesday that the recent depreciation of the rand to below R16 to the US dollar was not justified on the grounds of the real South African economy. “It is primarily speculative movement,” he said at a press conference in Addis Ababa, adding that South Africa’s financial sector was too large relative to its real economic sector. And so South Africa needed to do a lot more to manage capital flows.
Perspectives on African trade performance and policy and the role of the multilateral trading system (WTO)
The Ministerial Conference, along with the Fourth China Round Table, provide a good occasion to take a step back and reflect on Africa’s trade experience and its relationship with the multilateral trading system. What are the continent’s achievements and challenges? This policy brief considers these questions, based largely on a series of papers commissioned for the Fourth China Round Table.
Note: The purpose of the China Round Table process has been to relate the results from WTO Accessions to the core objectives of domestic reforms, systemic updates of the rules of the Multilateral Trading System, market opening and integration into the inter-dependent global economy. [The authors: Patrick Low, Chiedu Osakwe, Maika Oshikawa]
US, EU, others want work on ‘new issues’ at WTO (Livemint)
A month after dismantling the Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations in Nairobi, the US, the European Union, Australia and Canada, among others, called for starting work on “new issues” in international trade at the World Trade Organization, according to several participants present at an informal meeting in Davos on Saturday. China also joined the major industrialized countries by proposing a “solidarity work programme” to address “very relevant new issues such as e-commerce and investment”.
Note: Trade chiefs of the US, the EU, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Lesotho, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, and Thailand participated in the half-day meeting. India was not represented.
TISA: USTR statement following the ministerial meeting
World Banks's latest Commodity Markets Outlook
Billions locked in poverty by public sector corruption, report shows (The Guardian)
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2015 – which ranked 168 countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) – is once again topped by Denmark, which scored 91. Close behind are Finland (90), Sweden (89), New Zealand (88) and the Netherlands (87). Germany, Luxembourg and the UK are equal 10th with a score of 81, while the US comes in 16th on 76. The five countries at the bottom are: Somalia (8); North Korea (8); Afghanistan(11); Sudan (12), and South Sudan (15). [Downloads available]
Does the 4th Industrial Revolution include anti-corruption? (Transparency International)
Contributors and detractors: ranking countries’ impact on global innovation (ITIF)
Robust innovation is essential for economic growth and social progress around the world. Until now, most studies of innovation policy looked at how nations’ policies affect innovation in their own country. This report assesses 56 countries—which comprise almost 90 percent of the global economy—on 27 factors reflecting the extent to which their economic and trade policies contribute to and detract from innovation globally. [Related: Three charts that show why India lags in innovation (Livemint)]
Committing to climate action in the supply chain (CDP)
The new report – which includes commentary from McKinsey & Company – suggests that carbon emissions and climate management are increasingly factored into procurement decisions and are disrupting established supplier-based business models.
Ethiopia's food emergency intensifies, UN appeals for more resources (UN)
Nimrod Zalk: 'Ethiopia quietly dispels Africa myths' (Business Day)
Mozambique: Alternatives to protectionism in the agricultural sector (SPEED)
USTR, USDA secure improved access for US beef and beef products to Colombia (USTR)
India: Domestic shipping firms seek 25% reservation in cargo imports (Livemint)
WEF creates task force with Carney, Rajan to study global financial system (Reuters)
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